steel s12 mags. Project completed.

[beefcakeb99 572]

Beefcake. Sounds like you got it right, I edited the above to clear that up.

 

I actually removed a fair amount from the rear lug on production.. This is a little maddening.. I'll have more removed next go around.

 

I'm understanding why the factory uses such a small contact point. It makes fitting easy, even if its weaker its simple to fit.

I didn't notice much difference from the test mags lug, the production model certainly seems almost the same size. But compared to the factory 5s they have such huge lugs, factory is so tiny!

 

Seems logical to me that you should leave it as is or only remove a little on production as it also seems like many people have less to remove. I'd be interested to see other peoples latch for comparison, as well as how much everyone has to remove for a comfy lock. first fitting gets a lock but requires some force so of course I cleaned it up a bunch for an easy quick yet solid lock... Hate to struggle for a lock but still like it tight. 100s of insertions do make it feel much more easy fit.

 

Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it imo, unless most will need and dislike necessary filing.

[Deadeye 325]

what do you do to refinish where fileing ?

[gunfun 3,931]

what do you do to refinish where fileing ?

 

A: http://www.amazon.com/Birchwood-Casey-PRESTO-BLUE-TOUCH/dp/B002E6R786

[csspecs 1,987]

Pretty much the best cold blue on the market.. At least that I know of.

http://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-tools-supplies/metal-prep-coloring/metal-bluing/paste-cold-bluing-chemicals/oxpho-blue-creme-prod1108.aspx

 

Just clean the area, heat it a little and apply.. Instructions don't mention heating, but it works better when the metal is around 100 degrees or so.

[blackknight135 9]

Where are you going to announce that you are selling more of these mags? If they are as good as your .308 mags, look out you'll be swamped.

[csspecs 1,987]

We are probably going to list more on Friday.. I've had positive feedback from about a dozen people.  I'd like to do one more round.

[lbsrdi 1,078]

Here is a video from this evening, ran 50 rounds without issue.

 

[csspecs 1,987]

Cool. Thank you for making the journey to the range, the snow looks cold..

[gunfun 3,931]

Well, a class got cancelled, so I was able to make it out today and test some. I shot some video, but I'll give you the short answer now. My internet is being rather comcastic, so it may be a while before I can get that to upload and edit it.

 

They worked flawlessly. I got the modified followers yesterday, so I ran one with the original, and the other with the modified. I had zero problems with either magazine. I don't know the round count exactly, but maybe 125 shots ish. Mostly home made slugs in a few different hulls since those are cheapest for me.

I'd suggest that you just put the car trim on the mags as standard practice, it makes them far nicer. 

[csspecs 1,987]

I'll see about getting a roll of the car door trim..

I said I'd put it in your box but I see two strips sitting on my desk which tells me I probably forgot.

[Mullet Man 2,114]

I'm not reading this entire thread...whats the trim for?

 

 

And hurry up with the second batch of mags already, I need about 12 of them.

[csspecs 1,987]

Car door trim is something I add to the back flange of my personal magazines to make them more comfortable.

The flange of the S-12 magazines is a little taller than an AK-47 mag due to the depth of the stamping..

Due to the extra length of the flange they hit the web of your thumb somewhat painfully when being changed.

 

Without the trim piece. You can see the focused pressure

 

With the trim piece, no focused pressure.

 

Here you can see the strip, I did not round the top side. The flash made it look a little glossy, its more of a dull black.

 

Here is the same stuff applied to the back of a Korean ak-47 mag shaped paper weight.

(that paper weight has sat on every invoice since I bought it, its yet to jam... However for feeding a rifle they kinda suck)

 

The magazines are actually sitting waiting on feedback. I have several bins of them.

The volume of fitting is a going to be a little annoying, I'll state it clearly when they go back up, keep anyone from being surprised.

[thebobrusso 27]

let us know when your ready for a full release. because i plan on giving you a write up on all the gun forums i frequent and pimping your product. i don't want you to be overrun before i do this or not 100% confident in the reliability cause i think the quality is great and i want you to succeed and thank you for bringing this and other high quality niche magazines to market. 

[gunfun 3,931]

I'll see about getting a roll of the car door trim..

I said I'd put it in your box but I see two strips sitting on my desk which tells me I probably forgot.

 

Cool. I think your customers will appreciate it. Or more likely, it won't occur to them to appreciate it. I bought a pack cheaply and I definitely prefer the difference. I realized when I got home that I wasn't even aware of having to hold the mags carefully.

 

One minor change would be to extend the spring guide tab up a little. Just enough that the mag won't take 9 shells. A few times I over filled them a round and  found my mistake when I attempted to load on a closed bolt and felt excess resistance. Not a reason to delay shipping this batch or anything, but a slight tweak for down the road.

[Mullet Man 2,114]

Ok, that's what I thought it might be used for.

Curious why ribbed back, instead of flat back, over lap and spot weld?

[gunfun 3,931]

 

The magazines are actually sitting waiting on feedback. I have several bins of them.

The volume of fitting is a going to be a little annoying, I'll state it clearly when they go back up, keep anyone from being surprised.

 

Put a thumbnail link to the video on the product description page and a one page printed instruction sheet with the reason, and simple steps + url of the video in each package.

[csspecs 1,987]

 

 

One minor change would be to extend the spring guide tab up a little. Just enough that the mag won't take 9 shells. A few times I over filled them a round and  found my mistake when I attempted to load on a closed bolt and felt excess resistance. Not a reason to delay shipping this batch or anything, but a slight tweak for down the road.

 

 

I think the follower is actually bottoming out on the floor plate, so I just need to change the length a little on either the body or follower.

However I think the reason is that the 3" shells needed more room to seat. I'll have to check if I can remove any and still seat the mag with a full load of 3".

 

 

Ok, that's what I thought it might be used for.

Curious why ribbed back, instead of flat back, over lap and spot weld?

 

Ever try to fold paper over a round surface? It crumples up, because the surface area needs to decrease.

The ribbed back increases the surface area and helps pull the metal out of the die. Its also very strong, to cave the back of the magazine in, you have to bend 1/4" of steel.

 

To make a Chinese style flat back you actually make the same flange but an even deeper stamping, then on a second stage you shear off the extra metal. This leaves a nice crisp stamping but with no rib on the back.. They are also prone to distortion in heat treatment, due to the stresses left in from the shearing. And it makes the tooling 4X more expensive.

 

The AR-15 pattern magazine uses a step in the back to stretch the metal, similar to a ribbed back. However with a single stack magazine it give a lot of uncontrollable variables. And in the designs I could not get the feedlips to attach to the magazine in a way that would allow the rounds to slide up without hitting an edge.

 

When I make an .223 magazine, its probably going to be like an AR-15 at the back, simply because its a great design in that application.

 

 

 

 

The magazines are actually sitting waiting on feedback. I have several bins of them.

The volume of fitting is a going to be a little annoying, I'll state it clearly when they go back up, keep anyone from being surprised.

 

Put a thumbnail link to the video on the product description page and a one page printed instruction sheet with the reason, and simple steps + url of the video in each package.

 

 

 

I'll do that.

[Mullet Man 2,114]

I guess I was just thinking like a bead rolled edge before the stamping process which would stretch the metal instead of needing to bend that small amount to the depth of the thickness of the steel. Then overlap the adjoining edge, just enough to spot it.

I was trying to remember how "racer27" built his steel mags as flatbacks and remembered that they were 4 piece bodies and welded together at the corners.

Edited January 23, 2014 by Mullet Man

[gunfun 3,931]

Obviously that's not very time efficient or repeatable. IIRC his were very thick metal to make the welding easier too.

[Mullet Man 2,114]

Obviously that's not very time efficient or repeatable. IIRC his were very thick metal to make the welding easier too.

Are you referencing Racer27's? I'm not suggesting they be done like his, was just "thinking out loud".

[gunfun 3,931]

Yeah, but I wasn't saying you were suggesting it. I suppose it could be done with 3 pieces, the front exactly as is, but a strip down the back spot welded flat against the back in place of the spine. That would be smoother, but more work, and heavier. I don't know how much that sort of design would affect the tolerances.

 

I was mostly saying that while I don't care for the spine, I'd rather have a reliable mag that doesn't require a bunch of QC time to make sure the welds didn't cause snags or warps inside. I definitely prefer a ~$60 dead reliable mag with a spine  to a ~$80 equally reliable mag that someone took the time to remove the spine from and touch it up.

[gunfun 3,931]

BTW, I know this sucks, but I have to go to bed. 

 

I'll try to edit it later for length and to look like less of an idiot. 

The link won't work until it's finished processing.

 

[lbsrdi 1,078]

I just wanted to throw in my opinion about capacity. If you are going to make the mag only hold 8 in the future, my vote would be to add material to the bottom of the follower so that if one desired he could remove the material to allow it to hold 9 again. Nice video Gunfun, my only comment is for anyone disassembling mags to throw on some safety glasses to prevent eye damage. When I changed out my follower the exact same thing happened and I was not wearing glasses, never again. Lol

[csspecs 1,987]

I've been hit by floor plates and springs many times.. I wear a face shield when assembling them.

 

I'll include a note about that as well.

[gunfun 3,931]

It was mostly that the end of my glove kept getting between the floorplate and the spring guide button. So when I pulled my finger clear it shifted the floorplate off of the tab. It isn't normally a problem for me. I tend to be awkward on camera, and what you couldn't see out of shot (besides my aerial targets) was that a guy was setting up a long range shooting bench perpendicular to my lane about 40 feet behind my position. That was rather distracting, and I paused everything to make sure he wasn't going to shoot across me. Then I was rushing my video shooting to get out of his way, so that he could pattern his rifle and be done. He only wanted to do a couple slow 5 shot groups, so I shot a little video, then went to his table until he was done. I think I won a few more guys over to the theory of box fed shotguns after that. They couldn't understand why I kept reaching into a box of shotgun shells to feed my rifle.

 

King- I should  have had glasses on anyway. I forgot them on my dash and didn't think about until the trip was over. Usually I wear my prescription sunglasses when shooting, but it was a grey day out.

 

I just watched that in slow-mo, and I didn't get hit in the face.

 

Mostly, I was disappointed that I didn't get the stack of clays in shot. I wanted to see how that looked slow. I did that shot 2x, but somehow didn't film the first one. I threw up 6, and only shards fell down, but I think on my first or second shot a few stray pellets took out a neighboring clay, rather than actual aim. I'm sure I completely missed the one on the far right because I wasn't fast enough to shoot at it., but I only see fragments landing, so it might have been weak and broken on its own before hitting the ground.

Edited January 23, 2014 by GunFun

[Skitterfish 10]

Thank you Csspecs for releasing more mags for sale! I just ordered two and will be wringing them out as soon as they come in!

[KennyFSU 249]

I also grabbed one, thanks again.

[sunnybean 939]

Nice video gunfun.

 

So, how are you supposed to pronounce it anyway? CS Specs or CSS pecs? ;-) What does that stand for?

[lbsrdi 1,078]

Nice video gunfun.

So, how are you supposed to pronounce it anyway? CS Specs or CSS pecs? ;-) What does that stand for?

Post 582, http://forum.saiga-12.com/index.php?/topic/11660-what-does-your-screenname-mean/page-20

 

I don't know how to pronounce it I just remember reading it in that thread.

Edited January 24, 2014 by K.o.t.H.

[csspecs 1,987]

 

Nice video gunfun.

So, how are you supposed to pronounce it anyway? CS Specs or CSS pecs? ;-) What does that stand for?

Post 582, http://forum.saiga-12.com/index.php?/topic/11660-what-does-your-screenname-mean/page-20

 

I don't know how to pronounce it I just remember reading it in that thread.

 

Yup, its just my gamer tag. 

It was actually a joke that stuck.. Now I'm stuck with that forever.

 

I say as: C S specs

 

One day I'll come up with a unique name that people can say.

We actually had a really witty acronym.

Civilian Sport Shooting Product & Equipment Creation Service.... But its a little long for a letter head..